TITLE: The Joy Bringers / The Wish Gatherers
AUTHOR: Karen Celestine (and Tamsin Rosewell for The Wish Gatherers)
PUBLISHER: Graffeg
ISBN: 978-1802586626 / 978-1802581874
PODCAST EPISODE: None
REVIEWER: Tracey Norman
These delightful books, part of a series, are described as ‘picture books for adults’ but they are so much more than that.
Featuring whimsical photos of the writer’s own felted woodland animals in nature – sitting on a rock admiring the sunset, picking foxgloves, or sitting sewing at the foot of a tree – the folktale in each book is simple and accessible, yet carries deeper meaning. In The Wish Gatherers, the images are created by merging Karin Celestine's photographs of her needle-felted creatures against a backdrop of ink, with gold and silver leaf, created by Tamsin Rosewell.
Both books, The Joy Bringers in particular, feel like a gentle lesson in mindfulness, encouraging us to pause and consider the questions being asked in the story about our environment and how our creativity and inspiration is sparked by what we see and experience around us – if we take the time to look.
Each tale in the series is based around a different season – The Joy Bringers around summer, and The Wish Gatherers around autumn – and there is a section at the end of the books which briefly describes some of that season’s traditional customs, such as ‘Cutting the Neck’, Lammastide, the origins of the harvest supper, and a variety of midsummer customs.
While the stories themselves are original, they have the flavour of traditional storytelling. We see the narrator of The Joy Bringers appealing directly to the reader to actively participate in the creation of sparks of inspiration during the summer months, which the tricksy foxes will then gather and spread throughout the land for others to find, underscoring the interconnectedness of everything in our landscape and environment, and the way in which joy and positivity can spread from person to person. The Wish Gatherers is a beautiful interpretation of ‘wishing stars’, which fall to Earth after granting a wish, resting against a backdrop of Lammas celebrations until the gatherer, a rabbit especially chosen for the task, gathers them up to be returned to the heavens to listen out for another wish on another day. This book, too, encourages us to consider how we interact both with those around us and with nature.
Both of these books can be enjoyed by children as well as adults, whether as mindfulness exercises, as a set of prompts to encourage interaction with nature (for any age group!) or simply as gentle folk tales, which, despite their simplicity, are still thought-provoking, just as folk tales should be.
AUTHOR: Karen Celestine (and Tamsin Rosewell for The Wish Gatherers)
PUBLISHER: Graffeg
ISBN: 978-1802586626 / 978-1802581874
PODCAST EPISODE: None
REVIEWER: Tracey Norman
These delightful books, part of a series, are described as ‘picture books for adults’ but they are so much more than that.
Featuring whimsical photos of the writer’s own felted woodland animals in nature – sitting on a rock admiring the sunset, picking foxgloves, or sitting sewing at the foot of a tree – the folktale in each book is simple and accessible, yet carries deeper meaning. In The Wish Gatherers, the images are created by merging Karin Celestine's photographs of her needle-felted creatures against a backdrop of ink, with gold and silver leaf, created by Tamsin Rosewell.
Both books, The Joy Bringers in particular, feel like a gentle lesson in mindfulness, encouraging us to pause and consider the questions being asked in the story about our environment and how our creativity and inspiration is sparked by what we see and experience around us – if we take the time to look.
Each tale in the series is based around a different season – The Joy Bringers around summer, and The Wish Gatherers around autumn – and there is a section at the end of the books which briefly describes some of that season’s traditional customs, such as ‘Cutting the Neck’, Lammastide, the origins of the harvest supper, and a variety of midsummer customs.
While the stories themselves are original, they have the flavour of traditional storytelling. We see the narrator of The Joy Bringers appealing directly to the reader to actively participate in the creation of sparks of inspiration during the summer months, which the tricksy foxes will then gather and spread throughout the land for others to find, underscoring the interconnectedness of everything in our landscape and environment, and the way in which joy and positivity can spread from person to person. The Wish Gatherers is a beautiful interpretation of ‘wishing stars’, which fall to Earth after granting a wish, resting against a backdrop of Lammas celebrations until the gatherer, a rabbit especially chosen for the task, gathers them up to be returned to the heavens to listen out for another wish on another day. This book, too, encourages us to consider how we interact both with those around us and with nature.
Both of these books can be enjoyed by children as well as adults, whether as mindfulness exercises, as a set of prompts to encourage interaction with nature (for any age group!) or simply as gentle folk tales, which, despite their simplicity, are still thought-provoking, just as folk tales should be.